Finally, Tony Leung knows his role in a Wong Kar Wai movie

By Yip Wai Yee, In Shanghai

Out of his seven collaborations with acclaimed Hong Kong film-maker Wong Kar Wai, The Grandmaster is the first where actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai had any real clue about the role that he is playing during filming.

In the film, the 50-year-old plays the historical real-life figure of martial arts expert Ip Man, whose life has been portrayed before in books and films.

"This was the first time I knew who my character was, and had such a clear notion of the man," he says, speaking to the local press at ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands yesterday.

"When you work with Wong Kar Wai, he won't really tell you what the story is. He will give you the day's script, or the script for the scene, and then you just go with that.